Save The Tatas!

Okay, I'm not doing anything too interesting so I'm going to highlight someone who is. Over on Ravelry Rubberneckers, our very own blogless HomesteadMom is off to walk for 3 days at the Philadelphia Breast Cancer 3-day (go ahead, click it, it's harmless!). And if you're a yarnophile, you can even get signed up for some marvelous prizes and I'm just going to copy and paste from the Ravelry page:

The deadline for entering my Bewby Raffle is July 31st, only eight days away! If you have not yet had a chance to do so, please visit my 3-Day page to read about what my mom and I are doing this October, and to make a donation.

Again, here are the terms: For every $5 you donate, your name will be entered one time. So if you donate $25, you will be entered 5 times. $50, ten times. Etc. One prize per person.

And here are the prizes:

PRIZE 1


KnottyLa, aka La of the JenLa duo has donated a skein of her hand-dyed sock yarn. As her store’s not due to open until later this year, the winner will own exclusive Dizzy Blonde Studios yarn before the rest of the world can. And if that’s not exclusive enough…

The colorway is “Mae”, and it’s a one-off colorway, meaning that it will not be repeated. Only 4 more skeins remain, and then it’s gone forever.

The Dizzy Blonde Studios store is scheduled to open 08/08/08

PRIZE 2



This skein of Rock Creek Yarn’s Simply Sock Yarn was generously donated by threeteens. The yarn is 100% superwash merino wool, fingering weight, approx. 400 yards. Colorway is Cherry Blossom Just gorgeous!

PRIZES 3,4, & 5



Those of you who have tried to find Yarntini recently know that this yarn is very hard to come by. I am offering these three skeins from my private stash. From top to bottom: Pomtini, Ice Blue, and Twistini. Yarn is 100% superwash merino wool, sport weight, approx. 260 yards per skein. (One skein makes a pair of socks.)

PRIZE 6



Three skeins of Malabrigo lace weight, color tuareg. This is a very pretty blue, and so soft and silky! 100% baby merino wool, approx, 470 yards/skein.

PRIZE 7



Last but not least, I am offering a BRAND NEW Ravelry Logo Tote. Great for toting and storing knitting projects! You can read more about this bag at the Ravelry Mini Mart.

So, there's the fun and the good times. I'll be over here. Plying. And chewing all skin and possibly flesh off my lips in concentration.

Tour de Fleece

First off, apologies for having two blog posts so close together. I know I lose more readers that way but, well, get over it. I have.



I have actually really gotten into my spinning as you saw in my previous post. But drop spindling takes a good long time, so it's not like you can see whole skeins just falling from some imaginary wheel that I do not have like I've seen on the Ravelry boards (jealous much? Oh yes, yes I am). But I still can't say that I regret the time spent in quiet enjoyment, making a thing spin and creating yarn from fluff. It makes me look at clouds in a whole new light. Mmhmm. But I realize that I need to document this a little better. So here we go, playing catch up.

Day 5
I had already had to empty the spindle once as it got overloaded and there is about 120-some yards on my niddy noddy. And then I got all this spun up:



Day 6
There was a good deal more spinning yesterday and before retiring to bed, this is what I had on the spindle:




It's been a lot of fun. I found Heroes Season 2 to watch while I spin and that really makes it enjoyable.

You know, I needed something to do while summer made things hot and sticky and knitting, even if it was lace, just didn't seem to be the thing. But this has been a lot of fun and I look forward to finishing up all that fiber by the end of the Tour. And maybe as a reward, I'll buy some of Tracy Bunker's hand-dyed fiber to spin up for the NEXT Tour de Fleece.

And finally, I have some exciting news! I'm moving back to Utah, this time with my parents and Daisy. Dad got a job in Dugway and this will be a good opportunity for me to get back to Utah, conquer my CPNE fears, finish my RN and start my career where I had always wanted to in the first place. I look forward to it. In fact, when mom told me, I burst into tears. :D Now, I know some people aren't really down with Utah (not just you, Mary, there are lots of people who don't like it) but I gotta say, the place is what you make it. I love Kansas. I'll miss the green and the indie shops and dressing like a hippie and the Honk For Hemp guy along with the friends I've made here. But I look forward to Utah and my friends with their anime/MST3K nights and that when I sweat, it actually *evaporates* and I feel cool in a breeze, instead of just slightly less miserable. And people smile in Utah. Not that they don't smile in Kansas, it's just that when I'm walking and make eye-contact with a person in Kansas, the eyes do the slide-away and there's no acknowledgment that you even exist where people *do* smile when they see you in Utah.

But that's just me. :)

Boom de ya da

I didn't exercise today. I walked for 10 minutes when I took the dog for her morning toileting but otherwise, I stayed where it was shady and cool. I even slept in, though doing so caused me to dream strange dreams. Ah well, that's the price paid for doing so.

I have a routine, though. I write it up on my whiteboard before I go to bed and then as I do those things on the list, I erase them with a finger. It works well that way. But I find I can't alternate writing with spinning. I end up getting distracted by the spinning and don't get my wordcount in with my writing. And it's not like the story is boring, though I want to get to a part I haven't rewritten five different times before, that would be nice.

Mom's home from Corpus Christi tomorrow and Auntie Flo is beating me with her energy sapping stick. I try to defy her but every time, she lays me out flat so let's see how much I can get cooked/cleaned up before mom gets home before I pass out or cry.

Oh yes, and check out yesterday's fog:

If it's so humid that you can't see down the street, it's way too humid to run. And it was 70 degrees. I was already feeling damp as soon as I stepped outside. No thank you. XP

Also, if you want to check out what I'm spinning:
This is what I intend to have all spun up for Tour de Fleece. I'm sure it's a tencel merino but it must not have come with a label because I wouldn't have just tossed something like that. Or would I? Sometimes I'm a real moron. But I got it from the Renaissance Festival.


And this is an artsy photo what I had to unload off my full spindle:


It's not very even, I'm still such a n00b at spinning but I like it and I find that park'n'draft works a lot better for me than just letting it drop. Ah well.

Yes, I shamelessly copied and pasted from my LJ.

Un-lighted States

I can't say much about the Fourth Of July. I mean, go us, we were awesome 232 years ago. We thumbed our nose at British oppression, decided we'd make a stand, told them we didn't need their stinkin' tea or their stinkin' religion and they couldn't say anything about it.

And now, we're robbing ourselves of everything we'd fought for so long ago. Think about it.

Anyways, I've been quiet on *this* blog. Heh, what can I say? Most of my life-stuff gets posted over on LJ. But other than running and seeing the scorched imprint of a foot on the ground (yeah, THAT was a quick trip to the ER, I betcha) and nearly getting bit by the same dang dog that bit me 7 years ago (and I was ready to release some Tae Kwon Do whoop-bottom on that hound, let me tell you and nevermind the bleeding heart who'd be ticked that I kicked their stinking dog into a coma - DO NOT MESS WITH ME), there's little going on. So I shall share some photos instead. :)

I made dinner the other night (English Muffin pizzas, yummy and only 3 points or so for 3 halves) and for dessert, Tad's Sno Cones! Mom got the Sunrise and she was very happy about it.


And as I was walking to Hy-Vee for said pizzas, I saw a fellow knitter and her truck!


The night before I attended a boozeless booze party for a person who was turning 21. We were playing poker and I had far too many Jello Shots.


Fourth of July was pretty cool, they brought out a horse, who wasn't too impressed by the skeet shooting (this was out in the country, y'all). I took a picture of its eye. So artsy.


And we done blowed stuff up:


I hope everyone else made Big Boom in a safe environment where no scorched imprints of your stupidity are left on the concrete for a good three months.

Now I need to get a picture of *that*.